Car dumper



Get. 28 .1924. 1,513,580

A. F. cAsE CAR DUMPER m. as. AQMQ A. F. CA$E cm DUMPER 3 Sheets-Sheet. 2

Filed June 16 1 922 1% iii WHUN Oct. 28 19 1,513,580

A. F. CASE CAR BUMPER v Filed June 16, 1922 3 Sheets-Sheet 5 78 I) E; 20 E 19 i7 i6 76 ,1120672207.

Patented Oct. 28, 1924.

ARTHUR F. CASE, OF CLEVELAND, OHIO, ASSIGNOR TO THE XVELLMAN-S-EAVER-MOR- GAN COMPANY, or CLEVELAND,

OHIO, A CORPORATION OF OHIO.

CAR BUMPER.

Application filed June 16, 1922.

To all whom it may concern.

Be it known that I, ARTHUR F. Case, a citizen of the United States, residing at Cleveland, in the county of Cuyahoga and State of Ohio, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Car Dumpers, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

This invention relates to car dumpers and particularly to car dumpers of the lifting type.

Car dumpers of the lifting type as commonly constructed, include a vertical tower or frame and a cradle which is adapted to receive a car to be dumped, and then to be lifted to a predetermined height in the tower and then turned or tilted to dump the contents of the car into a suitable receiving member which is generally a. pan connected to a girder which extends across the front of the tower and can be elevated or lowered to vary the height to which the cradle is elevated before the tilting or turning motion begins. Usually this girder is provided at its ends with a pair of pivot members which are engaged by co-operating pivot members carried by ends of the front side of the cradle when the cradle has been elevated to the predetermined point.

It has been standard practice to apply counterweights to the cradle of lifting car dumpers for the purpose of assisting the hoisting motors, but on account of the fact that the cradle is required to descend by gravity, the amount or weight of the counterweights so applied was necessarily lim ited to an amount which would be overhauled and raised by what is known as the unbalanced load of the cradle. This unbalanced load of the cradle which is required also to overhaul the hoisting machinery when the cradle is descending, must be sufficient to cause the cradle to remain seated in its lowered position when no car is in place upon it.

The counterweight arrangement heretotore used has proven satisfactory for prior constructions required to handle cars of ordinary capacities and although increases in car sizes have been compensated for by the addition of more motors working in groups, this has resulted in very complicated control systems, and the motor equipment required Serial No. 568,699.

to maintain high machine capacities at high lifts has substantially reached the limit of development.

Notwithstanding the fact that the practical limit has been substantially reached in the grouping arrangement of the motors, the car sizes continue to increase and some users of car dumpers are now requiring machines capable of handling two cars at the same time.

It is obvious that if additional lifting counterweights could be applied to the eradle the operating power under the conditions just mentioned could be kept within practical limits, but as before stated, the cradle must have suifieie'nt unbalanced load to remain seated when no car is in place on it. The demand on the lifting drum or drums includes not only this load, but also the weight of the ear and its contents, and, of course, with large cars, or two cars in the cradle this demand becomes excessive The principal object of the present invention is to meet the requirements of the increasing load demands without the necessity for correspondingly increased motor power for elevating and turning the cradle. 7 Further the invention aims to provide an arrangement of counterweights which will enable the amount of counterweight to be increased without interfering with the tunction of the unbalanced load of the cradle in restoring the cradle to its normal lowered position and overhauling the hoisting machinery.

The invention may be briefly summarized as consisting in certain novel details of construction, and combinations and arrangements of parts which will be described in the specification and set'forth in the appended claims. 7 i

In the accompanying sheets of drawings illustrating the preferred embodiment of my invention, Fig. l is an end view of a car dumper shown somewhat conventionally and equipped with my invention; Fig. 2 is a view of the rear or counterweight side of the same; Fig. 3 is a diagrammatic view of the hoisting and counterweight cables; Fig. 4 is a plan view of the hoisting mechanism; Fig. 5 is a detail view showing the pivot means between the ends of the girder and cradle for causing the cradle to be turned or tilted had after being lifted to the predetermined height; and Fig. 6 is a. view similar to Fig. 3 showing a slight modification.

Referring now to the drawings, 10 represents the tower which may be of usual construction and is therefore shown somewhat conventionally. The tower is usually formed of structural material which is indicated in Figs. 1 and 2. The cradle which is shown at 11 i designed to be elevated in the tower and then to be turned or tilted when it reaches a predetermined elevation so as to dump the contents of the car or cars 12 into the pan or other receiving element. In Fig. 1 the cradle is shown by full lines in its lowermost position, and by dotted lines in elevated and turned position. The girder 13 which as previously stated extends across the front of the tower, (see Figs. 1 and 5) and is usually adjustable to vary the height to which the cradle is elevated, carries suit able pivot members shown in Fig. 5 as hooks 14-, which hooks: are adapted to be engaged by co-operating pivot members carried by the ends of the cradle and shown as studs 15 in F ig. 5, the studs being adapted to engage the hooks as the cradle is elevated, after which the cradle turns about the pivotal axis to the dotted line position shown in Fig. 1. When the cradle is being tilted, the car is held in position on the cradle by any suitable car holding or clamping means which may include car holding counterweights and cables.

The cradle is usually elevated in the tower by cables connected to the cradle and passing over suitable sheaves at the top of the tower, and by motor driven drums onto which these cables or others connected to them are wound when the cradle is being elevated, and from which they are unwound when the cradle is descending with an empty car. In Fig. 4 I have shown the hoisting drums at 16, these drums being connected by gearing 17 to a shaft 18 adapted to be driven by two pairs of meters 19 geared to the shaft by gearing 20. The particular system of cable reeving, or manner of connecting the drums to the cradle is immaterial to my invention and may be other than here shown, but in the drawings I have shown one method or system which has proven to be very effective. In this instance the cables which are wound onto the drums when the cradle is elevated and then tilted and which are unwound therefrom when the cradle is being restored to its normal lower; position are shown at 21. Each of these cables has one end dead ended as indicated at 22, and extends upwardly around the lower sheave 23 of a carriage 245 and then down around the associated drum forming a two-part line. A second cable 2 1 is associated with each cable 21, this cable being connected at one end indicated at 25 to the front part of the cradle, and passing upwardly around a guide sheave 26 at the top of the tower 10, then rearwardly around a guide sheave 27 carried by the upper rear part of the tower, then downwardly around the upper sheave 28 of the carriage as, then upwardly around a sheave 29 at the upper part of the tower, and then downwardly around the lower part of the cradle to which the end of the cable is connected. It is understood that this arrangement, diagrammatically and clearly illustrated in Fig. 3 is duplicated for each end of the cradle. It is sometimes the case that the same cables which pass about the drums are connected to the cradle, in which event the carriages are omitted and that system may be employed if desired.

Coming now to the features more directly involving my invention, two sets of counterweights are employed for assisting the motors in elevating the cradle. One set of counterweights 30 (there being preferably two counterweights to a set) is connected to the cradle in the customary manner, that is to say, each of these counterweights 30 is connected by a cable 31 which passes about sheaves 32 at the top of the tower, and then extend down to and is connected to one end of the frontpart of the cradle.

In accordance with my invention a second set of counterweights 33 is provided to assist in lifting the cradle, but instead of connecting these counterweights to the cradle as all counterweights have heretofore been connected, I connect them to the hoisting mechanism, and preferably direct to the hoist drums, the cables being led from the drums in the direction opposite to the main hoisting cables 21. These counterweights 33 are like the counterweights 30 arranged to move up and down along the rear side of the tower 10 and they have connected to them cables 34 which pass around sheaves 35 at the top of the tower, and in this instance then around sheaves 36 at the bottom of the tower and around the drums 16, being wound on the drums 16 oppositely with respect to the cables 21 as before stated.

It is evident that with the counterweight cables so arranged, the pull exerted by these cables tends to rotate the hoisting drums in the direction necessary for hoisting the cradle. Likewise it will be evident that the power required to rotate the drums is represented by the difierence between the counter weight pull exerted on the drums and the resistance to rotation by the pull on the cradle hoist ropes 21, and that if so desired, the amount of the counterweights 33 could be increased to the extent that it would lift the cradle and its load thereby making it necessary to retard the drums through the medium of a suitable brake arrangement. In that case, however, it would be necessary to apply power to the drum in the reverse :1 ear-ease direction to allow the cradle to descend. I now believe, however, :that the mostpractical application lot this principle is obtained by so regulating the :amount of counterweight whose =pull is exerted :on the :drums that :the power required to lift the cradle with its loaded car or cars is the equivalent of the power required in the @reverse direction to lift the counterweights and :allowxth-e cradle and empty car or cars to descend to the lower position.

In other words, by the present invention I am enabled to increase the amount of counterweight to an extent that would be impossible if the additional counterweight load were applied direct to the cradle.

The arrangement above described has the effect of increasing the efiiciency of lifting car dumpers by decreasing to a minimum the power input and permitting the application of standard motor and control equipment to machines capable of handling at high speeds the extremely large and heavy cars which are now coming into use.

It is not essential that the counterweights 33 be connected solely to the drum, but the same effect previously described can be obtained by connecting these counterweights both to the cradle and drums so that onehalf of this counterweight load will be taken by the drums and the other half by the cradle. This arrangement is illustrated in Fig. 6. In this figure the cradle hoisting cables and the counterweights 30 are arranged and connected as described and illustrated in the preceding figures, but the auxiliary or additional counterweights corresponding to the counterweights 33 of the preceding figures and here designated 33 are each connected to a floating sheave 38 arranged in a loop of a cable 39, one part of the cable at one side of the loop extending about sheaves 40 at the top of the tower, and then around a sheave 41 at the lower part of the tower and about the hoisting drum, around which it is wound oppositely with respect to the cable 21 as in the preceding case. The other part of the cable 39 extends from the opposite side of the loop around sheaves 42 at the top of the tower and then down to, and is connected to the cradle.

With this arrangement the pull exerted by each counterweight 33* is divided equally between the cradle and drum. Thus the counterweights 33 assist the counterweights 30 and make it impossible to decrease the size of the latter and to increase the size of the former.

Though the same results are obtained with both arrangements, the arrangement shown in Fig. 6 has this advantage that the two sets of counterweight-s can be made more nearly the same size than is possible with the arrangement shown in Fig. 3, which in "practice requires that the counterweights connected to the cradle be considerably heavier than :the counterweights connected $0 the drum. The practical advantage of reducing the size of the larger counterweights and increasing "the sizexof the smaller 'is that the use of counterweights di'fiicult to handle is avoided, and counterweight ca- .bles of :uniform orsubstantially uniform size may be used.

Any suitable car clamping means may, be

utilized to hold the car or cars on the cradle may be varied, and in some instances the entire amount of the oounterwieght may be applied to the drums or hoisting mechanism, though it will generally be app-lied part to the cradle and part to the hoisting mechanism.

I therefore do not desire to be confined to the details or arrangements shown, but aim in my claims to cover all modifications which do not involve a departure from the spirit and scope of my invention.

Having described my invention, I claim:

1. In a car dumper, a cradle supporting structure, a cradle therein adapted to receive a car to be dumped, and power mechanism for turning the cradle about an axis, and a counterweight connected to: a part of said mechanism to assist the turning of the cradle.

2. In a car dumper, a cradle adapted to receive a car and to be tilted to dump its contents, a sup orting structure for the cradle, power meol ianism including a drum and a cable connected to the cradle for tilting the cradle, and a counterweight connected to the drum to assist the tilting operation.

3. A car dumper of the lifting type comprising a tower, a cradle for receiving a car, power mechanism for elevating the cradle in the tower and for then turning it to dump a car supported by the cradle, and a counterweight connected both to the cradle and to the power mechanism toassist both the elevating and turning operations.

4. In a car dumper of the lifting type, a tower, a cradle for receiving a car and adapted to be elevated in the tower and then to be turned to dump the car, hoist mechanism connected to the cradle and counterweights each connected both to the cradle and the hoist mechanism and serving to first assist in elevating the cradle and then to assist in turning it.

5. In a car dumpei, a cradle adapted toreceive a car and to be tilted to dump its contents, a drum, a cable connected to the cradle and to the drum, and a counterweight supported in a loop of said cable between the cradle and drum.

6. In a car duinper of the lifting type, a tower, a cradle adapted to receive a car and to be elevated therein and then to be turned to dump the car, a drum, a cable connected to the drum and cradle, a counterweight connected to the cradle, a second cable Wound on the drum oppositely with respect tothe first named cable and also connected to the cradle, and a counterweight supported in a loop or bight thereof.-

In testimony whereof, I hereunto affix my signature.

ARTHUR F. CASE. 

